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WhatsApp gives you more ways to avoid annoying group chats
WhatsApp is giving you more ways to block people from adding you to group chats. Its updated privacy settings replace the original "nobody" option with a "my contacts except" choice that lets you prevent certain people (or all of them, if you prefer) from dragging you into a group. Your close friends and family can add you to a chat, for example, but a co-worker can't rope you into a sports discussion without your permission.
Trick allows RCS messaging on virtually any Android phone
Google is trying to speed up RCS' rollout on Android, but you might have a way to enable it sooner than that. Reddit users have posted a trick that lets you enable the richer texting on any compatible Android phone, regardless of carrier. The process involves pointing a key Android Messages flag toward a Google sandbox address, setting up Messages, resetting data and repeating part of the process until you can tap an item inside another Messages flag. If all goes well, you'll have data-only chat abilities, full-quality photo sharing and typing notifications.
Verizon and T-Mobile aren't supporting RCS on the Pixel 4 at launch
Google has been pushing its SMS-alternative Rich Communication Services (RCS) for years. And it's no secret that the roll out has been a bit of a mess. Now, in another set back, Verizon and T-Mobile will not support RCS messaging on the Pixel 4 at launch.
Google Voice users can start calls and send messages with Siri
Following its latest iOS update, Google Voice now works with Siri. You can use Apple's assistant to start calls or send messages through the service. You can enable Siri control by going to the Google Voice options and marking a default account for calls outside the app. Then, you'll have to activate the Use with Siri option for the app in the iOS device settings.
Instagram's Threads is a camera app for sharing with your closest friends
If you want to get a glimpse of Mark Zuckerberg's "privacy-focused" vision for Facebook, then look no further than Instagram's new social app: Threads. This new standalone, camera-first messaging app is an extension of Instagram's Close Friends feature on Stories, which lets you share pictures, videos and more only with groups of people you've carefully selected. As the Facebook CEO has said in recent months, his plan is to take Facebook into an era of "simple, intimate places," where individuals can have a dedicated space for private interactions on its family of apps. And with Threads from Instagram, which launches today on iOS and Android, the company is taking a step in that direction.
WhatsApp tests disappearing messages in its Android app
WhatsApp is testing disappearing messages. The feature appeared as a beta in version 2.19.275 of the Android app and was spotted by WABetaInfo. In the beta, the disappearing messages are available in group chats only, and they can be set to self-destruct in five seconds or an hour. There's no in-between, and you can't select individual messages to disappear -- they all vanish or none of them do.
Treaty would force Facebook to share encrypted chats with UK police
A cross-Atlantic political agreement could put social networks in an awkward position. Sources for The Times and Bloomberg understand that the US and UK will sign a treaty in October that would force Facebook and other social networks to hand encrypted messages to UK law enforcement. The measure would be limited to 'serious' cases like pedophilia and terrorism, but it could still leave social sites either handing over effectively unusable data (if they can't decrypt chats themselves) or weakening security through backdoors.
Vulnerability lets text messages steal emails from Android phones
Bogus text messages aren't just being used to send you to malicious websites or crash your phone -- in some cases, they can hijack your emails. Check Point Research has discovered a vulnerability in phones from Huawei, LG, Samsung and Sony that lets attackers use custom SMS to intercept all email traffic on target devices. The attack uses the common Open Mobile Alliance version of over-the-air provisioning, a carrier technique for deploying settings to new phones, to access emails. The attacks require different methods depending on the phone and available info (such as IMSI numbers and requesting PIN codes), but the result is the same: intruders trick users into compromising their phones through messages that pose as network settings changes.
The safest messaging apps
So you want to send a short, instant, text-based dispatch to another human. The options are endless -- iMessage, Slack, Instagram, WhatsApp, Skype, Snapchat -- but their security is variable. Short of whispering words into another person's ear, it's difficult to guarantee that no one else will ever be eavesdropping. For anything you wouldn't want to be seen by your ISP or used against you in a court of law, end-to-end encryption is necessary. It works by giving every user of an app a public key and a private key. Messages sent to you are encrypted with your public key and can only be opened with the private key. To anybody without your private key -- including the app company or a government that comes for the data later -- the text is indecipherable.
You can chat with Shopify stores from virtually anywhere
You might not have to switch to Apple's iMessage or Facebook Messenger the next time you want to talk to a favorite online store. Shopify has introduced a native chat feature (appropriately called Shopify Chat) that lets you talk to a store through any page, regardless of your browser or operating system. There could always be help on hand, whether you're looking for pricing info on your phone or a recommendation when you're on your PC at home.
Facebook paid people to transcribe Messenger voice chats
Add Facebook to the list of tech firms who've halted their audio transcriptions over privacy concerns. The company confirmed to Bloomberg that contractors had been transcribing Messenger voice chats to determine if AI had correctly interpreted the messages, but that it had "paused" the practice over a week ago in the wake of worries about other companies' transcription policies. The data was anonymized and came solely from people who'd volunteered for transcriptions, Facebook added.
Telegram's silent messages keep your conversations low-key
Just because you're messaging someone doesn't mean you want to loudly advertise that fact, and Telegram thinks it can help on that front. The newly updated chat app has introduced a silent messaging feature that delivers any text or media without a sound notification, no matter what someone's phone settings might be. It's most likely to be helpful if you don't want to wake someone, but it could also be useful if you're messaging on the sly during a meeting.
Google Assistant can read out text replies on WhatsApp and Telegram
Google Assistant has long had the option to read your SMS messages aloud, but that hasn't done much good if your conversations lived in third-party apps. That shouldn't be an issue for long. Both Android Police and 91mobiles have noticed that Google is rolling out the option to read messages from non-Google apps like WhatsApp, Slack and Telegram. You can dictate or type out replies, and there appears to be limited support for languages beyond English.
WhatsApp comes to millions of basic cellphones running KaiOS
WhatsApp has only had limited availability on basic cellphones until now, but Facebook is about to throw the gates wide open. The messaging app is now available on the KaiStore, making it available to "millions" of low-cost KaiOS cellphones with at least 256MB of RAM. "Most" KaiOS phones will come preloaded with WhatsApp in the third quarter of the year, and that's no small number when over 100 million of the phones have shipped to date.
Google takes control of bringing next-gen texting to Android
Google's rollout of RCS chat to Android devices has been slow, and you can blame that partly on the carriers. As the next-gen texting format usually depends on networks adding support one at a time, compatibility has been patchy at best. Now, though, Google is ready to take matters into its own hands -- the internet giant will offer RCS services to Android users in the UK and France later in June, giving them an opt-in choice through the platform's Messages app. The company's Drew Rowny explained it to The Verge as a sort of peer-to-peer end run around the carrier-driven model.
TikTok's owner launches chat app with a focus on communities
TikTok's owner, ByteDance, has jumped into the wide world of messaging apps. The company has released Flipchat (aka Feiliao), an "interest-based social app" for Android and iOS that combines the usual chats and video calls with a social network-style feed, chat groups and forums. While you can communicate like you would in other chat apps, the emphasis here is on participating in a community. If you're a fan of a movie, you can discuss it in a myriad of ways.
Slack fixes bug that could have let hackers intercept downloads
Slack has fixed a bug that could have allowed hackers to intercept and redirect downloads in the Windows desktop version of the messaging app. However, it seems no Slack users were affected before the service fixed the vulnerability.
France launches government chat app after fixing last-minute flaw
France made good on its promise to launch a secure government-only chat app -- although it almost didn't turn out that way. The country has introduced a beta version of Tchap, a messaging app that helps officials communicate with each other through Android, iOS and the web with reportedly greater security than they'd have with off-the-shelf apps. All private conversations are encrypted end-to-end, antivirus software screens all attachments and all data is stored in France. You only need a French government email address to sign up, though, and that's where the security issue resided.
WhatsApp lets you block randos from adding you to group chats
There are two types of people on this planet. Some absolutely relish getting a WhatsApp notification letting them know they've been added to a new group chat -- it's time for gossip! Others, however, would gladly fling their phone into the sun rather than contend with the continual onslaught of new and often pointless messages. Now, finally, WhatsApp is adding controls to help mitigate this trauma.
WhatsApp wants your help with a fake news study in India (updated)
India's elections begin April 11th, and WhatsApp is determined to use every method it can to fight fake news ahead of the voting. The Facebook-owned company has teamed up with Proto to launch a fact-checking project, Checkpoint Tipline, that verifies messages. Relay a message and Proto will determine whether it's real, bogus, misleading or contested. The team can handle images and video, and it supports four regional languages as well as English.
